As migrant caravan heads north, Trump pledges to reduce aid to countries they flee: NPR

Updated at 14:59 ET

As a vast train of migrants travels Mexico, fleeing violence and poverty for the fate that awaits them at the US border, President Trump swears that this will affect the countries that allowed their passage.

"Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador have not been able to prevent people from leaving their country and going to the United States illegally," Trump said. tweeted on monday. "We will now start cutting, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid that is regularly provided to them."

The president's threat comes amidst an avalanche of images of the caravan, which has been growing for days in its ranks with Honduran residents for the most part. According to the National Institute of Migration of Mexico, the Mexican government has treated more than 1,000 asylum applications during the last three days.

But this is only a fraction of the caravan that continues to make its way. Caravan size assessments varied. But according to at least one estimate, more than 7,000 migrants, including families with infants and seniors, are now walking north the sweltering heat from the state of Chiapas in Mexico, just north of the Guatemalan border.

As the group grew and struggled with the conditions, the migrants were badly received by the Mexican authorities. On Sunday, some 200 Mexican riot police organized a blockade, trying to block the passage of the caravan to the city of Tapachula, then packing and leaving a few minutes later.

"They just removed the blockade, all the police left and the caravan continued to march," reported journalist James Fredrick for NPR.

Trump made it clear that he was unhappy with the situation, turning the caravan spectrum into a central part of his election campaign before the mid-term elections next month.

"Whenever you see a caravan, or people entering or attempting to illegally enter our country, think of the Democrats and blame them for not granting us the right to vote to change our immigration laws! " Asset tweeted on mondayshortly before threatening foreign aid to migrants' countries of origin.

The United States spent nearly $ 200 million in foreign aid this year for the three countries mentioned by Trump in his tweet – Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. According to the State Department, this money, which is spent in collaboration with the programs of the three countries, aims to promote economic growth, enhance security and strengthen the rule of law.

In Honduras alone, agricultural investments by the US Agency for International Development "have brought 68,000 people out of extreme poverty," according to the US Global Leadership Coalition, a group advocating increased international aid.

But Trump has been skeptical about the value of this aid, which he has often used as a means of pressure against some countries. He specifically called Honduras and threatened the country when approaching a similar caravan early in the year.

Last year, he also threatened to cut off foreign aid to United Nations member states who voted to condemn the United States for moving its embassy to Israel in the disputed city of Jerusalem. Honduras and Guatemala were only nine countries to side with the United States in the vote of the United States General Assembly.

Nevertheless, we still do not know how much Trump really has the power to reduce its own aid. The BBC reported earlier this year that, since Congress controlled federal spending, it had the last word in terms of foreign aid – although the president has room for maneuver, depending on the program:

"The Congress can approve or modify the budget proposals of the administration and can also specify in a very detailed way where it wants the help to go – even if it goes against what the President.

"However, in situations where Congress has not specified the details, an administration has considerable room for maneuver as to how it spends the allocated budget – though it has to inform the Congress of its intentions. "

An official from the US Agency for International Development, contacted by NPR, was referred to the White House at the request of additional information. "The president made it clear that the countries benefiting from US aid should support our interests," said the official.

For the migrants themselves, however, these threats are secondary to more pressing issues, namely the violence they are fleeing and the hunger they suffer on the road.

"The children are suffering from the heat, there is no food, we have eaten only because the Guatemalans have been good to us," said a man named Samuel 39, given his name only for fear of reprisals at home. He told Fredrick that he was traveling with his wife and three sons – and rejected Trump's claims and other that the caravan was organized by political actors.

"Come on," said the man, "no one told us that they would give us money if we left, my wife and I made that decision."

Several reporters who has been traveling with the caravan also challenged Trump affirmation – offered without proof – that "strangers from the Middle East are mixed" in the group.

Los Angeles Times reporter Kate Linthicum tweeted that she did not see a single person who fits Trump's description. "I have seen hundreds of women, children and babies, though."

"I have to do it for her future," said one of these women in Time while carrying his 18 month old son. Paola Oviedo said to be one of the many migrants who crossed Suchiate River in rafts after Mexican officials arrested them on the bridge, a legal entry point to Guatemala.

Now, she and thousands of others are in Mexico – but most of them do not plan to stop there. They say they are heading to the United States regardless of Trump's statements.

"It's very hard because the heat of the sun tires us," said migrant Luis Puerto at the Associated Press. "But we are warriors and we have to go to where we need to be."